Good things come in small packages—and that’s the case with Chaucer’s Raspberry Wine. The contents of the 375-ml bottle pack a big, fruity punch.
This elegant wine is produced from 100 percent pure fruit, no cutting corners here! There are no artificial flavors added.
Made by Soquel’s Bargetto Winery, a local purveyor of fine wines, the delicious Chaucer’s Raspberry Wine ($15) tastes as fresh as spring. The fruity versatility lends many different ways to use the wine: drink it on its own; add it to a mojito with a splash of simple syrup; maybe just pour it over some vanilla ice cream.
At a recent tasting of bubbly at Bargetto, the server suggested adding some raspberry wine for a spritzy kick. What a difference it made, both in flavor and in the attractive pretty-pink color. Bargetto also suggests a recipe to pair with seafood, petrale sole with raspberry wine and black pepper sauce.
In addition to raspberry, try the other Chaucer’s flavors: blackberry, apricot and pomegranate. And there’s a Raspberry Mead, too, taking us back to days of yesteryear.
“In the spirit of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, experience these unique wines as a pilgrimage in sensory delight,” say the folks at Bargetto.
The Soquel winery is always an upbeat place to visit (they now also have a Monterey tasting room), and there are many wines to taste, including a 2017 Port made from traditional Portuguese varietals—one of my favorites.
Bargetto Winery, 3535 N. Main St., Soquel. 475-2258, bargetto.com.
Salmon Release
Friends came to my house for a potluck recently bearing Mt. Cook Alpine Salmon. It was so good I had to find out more about it. Imported from New Zealand by the local Santa Cruz Fish Company, it’s the first farmed salmon to get the best choice in sustainability by Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program.
Mt. Cook’s salmon comes from free-flowing, pure glacial water in New Zealand’s Southern Alps—ideal growing conditions to raise freshwater king salmon. You can find it at the Summit Store and local restaurants such as Café Cruz, Surf City Sandwich, Steamer Lane Supply, Shadowbrook, Palapas, Pono Hawaiian Grill, Crow’s Nest, and Johnny’s Harborside.
